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Cleanup efforts continue

SHIJIAZHUANG (China): A dozen fire engines were sent from Baoding, a city in north China's Hebei Province, to 8.5 km downstream to the site of a coal tar spill to pump contaminated water from the Dasha River. The polluted water will be pooled and treated in a closed environment, an official told Xinhua on Friday. He said most of the pollutants, primarily phenol, were concentrated within 20 km upstream the first dam built inside Hebei Province on the Dasha River. A truck carrying 60 tonnes of coal tar overturned near Dazhaikou village in Shanxi Province, on Monday and spilled its entire load into the river. The contaminated stretch entered Fuping on the lower reaches by Tuesday morning. It is moving at about one km per hour. Cleanup workers have built 51 dams by Thursday along the Dasha River to intercept the spill amid measures to minimise pollution threat.